From her very first day in the current Knesset, the opposition's veteran politicos went out of their way to make Yamina MK Idit Silman's life a misery.
The Likud's seasoned solons served her with measured courses of personal humiliation — leveling harsh accusations at her for her opinions, constantly working to ruffle her feathers, and confecting the perfect gruel that would nourish her eventual defection to Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu's ranks.
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Yamina MK Idit Silman, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu
(Photo: Yoav Dudkevitch, Alex Kolomoisky)
Too early into her nascent political career, Silman found herself thrust into a dangerous arena where battle-hardened generals fight for their survival. Now, less than a year into her baptism of fire, the rookie threw in the towel.
Her new compadres labeled her a "little girl" or a "good girl" to seed a notion of victimhood in the back of her mind, they sent thugs to terrorize her while she was casually pumping gas or sitting in the comfort of her own home, they threatened the lives of her children, they made her life a living hell.
They zeroed in on the guilt trip that was eating up Silman in the belief she will eventually submit and get sucked back into the Likud's eternal womb as she quietly swallows down yesterday's insults.
Even if hard to admit, they were right. Silman fell right into their hands like ripe fruit.
She grew in the lap of the Religious Zionist Party and her sorry reflex was triggered instinctively in the face of the labels that her former peers attached to her, such as "impulsive", "violent", "ugly", and "beggar on horseback". In hindsight, it looks like this strategy has paid dividends.
Over the past few months, Silman has preferred to internalize their prophecies. She gradually grew accustomed to the narrative they instilled in her and worked day and night to shape her politics accordingly.
She finally came to terms with her status as a debtor, but she did not take into account that her creditors would roll her debt over to us.
The public could pay heavily for Silman's great escape from her past commitments and her decision to cross the aisle.
We should not worry about Benjamin Netanyahu potentially becoming prime minister again, or Yair Lapid tragically missing out on his shot at the premiership, but about the chaos and turbulence that would beset the State of Israel anew in case the government collapses.
Had Silman been cut out of the cloth of a true statesperson, she would have opted for a different escape route and asked her peers for some time off politics for personal reasons, allowing her to save some grace. Instead, she preferred to take a page right out of her new allies' book and compromise the integrity of her political home.
If she really cared about the Israeli people, she would not have imposed another agonizing period of interim governments on the public and dragged the entire country down an abyss of socio-economic uncertainty.
It is not clear how it came about that Silman's guilty conscience became the official trigger of the upcoming election campaign, what is certain is that this unnecessary ride must be stopped in its tracks.
The issues at stake, which depend on the government's vote, are far greater than Silman's political career, or, with as little respect as she deserves, her future contribution to the Israeli people.
And until her dithering friends in Yamina, Abir Kara and Nir Orbach, decide on which side of history they want to be, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett would do well to take the time and contemplate where he went wrong.
This is his opportunity to realize that tolerating someone like Amichai Chikli one day, would end up having someone like Silman steal your party and topple your government the very next.
The pliable and terrified politician that sent a resignation letter to Bennett yesterday may be the reason why we will once again have to feel the familiar stagnation between administrations creeping towards us tomorrow.
This is Bennett's duty as the head of her party and as the prime minister of all of us to do everything to prevent this.